Walking the walk isn’t enough in fighting racism

AS 40,000 PEOPLE converged on the streets of Boston in late August to march against white supremacy, Massachusetts stood as a beacon of nationwide resistance to the racist policies coming out of the White House. It was fitting; historically, many revolutions have started in Massachusetts. Raising our collective voice against bigotry is a healthy exercise(...)

GOV. CHARLIE BAKER filed new legislation last month to battle the opioid crisis. His bill proposes some “important updates” to our arsenal of weapons in this fight, one of which, he says, would add a measure of “accountability” to the current strategy of treatment, education, and prevention. Specifically, the governor intends to “ensure that those who(...)

The Cannabis Control Commission met for the first time on Monday, and two of the five members refused to say whether they had ever smoked pot. Commissioners Jennifer Flanagan, a former state senator, and Shaleen Title, who worked on the ballot question that legalized recreational marijuana, declined to say whether they had used marijuana. Britte(...)

College campuses are anxiously waiting for President Trump’s decision on whether to dismantle or even substantially change the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. DACA was an executive order from then-President Barack Obama in 2012 that stopped deportation of undocumented immigrants who were brought to the US as children and who pose no security threat. But(...)

City officials and the Boston Teachers Union eagerly shared the news on Thursday that the two sides reached a tentative contract agreement after 18 months of negotiation. But it turns out it’s a lot easier to get to “yes” when you take one of the toughest issues off the table. The agreement, which still must(...)

A hallmark of American democracy has always been that a civilian, the president, is the ultimate commander in chief of the armed forces. It is perhaps the strongest signal we send that ours is a system of laws and representative government, not a military-ruled regime. What, then, to make of the fact that many people(...)

Back in 1990, during his run for governor, John Silber made the somewhat controversial observation that not everyone is college material and those folks would be better off focusing on a vocation like plumbing or construction. Apparently, that Silber Shocker from the well-educated college president didn’t do much to thwart the pursuit of higher education(...)

An estimated 40,000 people turned out on Saturday to say no to hate, racism, and neo-Nazis, but it remains unclear how many of the 50 people at the free speech rally that spawned the massive protest fit that description. Shiva Ayyadurai, a Republican running for the seat of US Sen. Elizabeth Warren, produced a 12-minute(...)

Boston is no place for hate – and we’ll beat you and isolate you to prove it. Message sent, message received. From elected officials to the 15,000 to 40,000 demonstrators (depending on whose estimate is accurate), the response to the fizzled Free Speech Rally on Boston Common Saturday was largely loud, proud, and peaceful. The(...)

The feds came up short again on Tuesday in trying to turn obnoxious or even sleazy behavior into federal crimes. It happened when the US Attorney’s office in Boston tried to make bare-knuckled political patronage at the state’s Probation Department a crime of racketeering and it happened again on Tuesday when a jury rejected a(...)